Deep Breath
by ExactChase
Summary: When Ruby is almost killed during a small mission in the Emerald Forrest, a strange Doctor shows up to help. In doing so, he gives Ruby the ability to regenerate; changing her face and personality in order to extend her life. How will WBY deal with their many new leaders?
1. The Emerald Forest

**A/N: So, the idea of this story is that I want to see how WBY would react to Ruby regenerating in the middle of something important. They now have to learn to get along with their new leader and this will happen several times. The story will follow canon closely for a little bit, and then suddenly veer off of that course.**

The Doctor bounced around the TARDIS console, flipping switches and pulling levers. He did so with a sort of childlike glee, as Amy and Rory watched him do so.

"What do you think of The Day of the Dead Festival in Mexico?" He asked. "One of the third best festivals in the universe! The first being a Sontaran funeral." Amy only smiled comfortably as she stood there next to Rory, just happy to be there. And then the TARDIS violently bounced, causing them to all lose their balance. They all grabbed onto some sort of railing. Amy and Rory, an actual rail, and the Doctor grabbed the console.

"What was that?" Amy asked. The Doctor frowned and moved around the console, grabbing the monitor.

"This again?!" He loudly asked, groaning. "This is supposed to be impossible!" He looked like a child having a tantrum, the way his face scrunched up, and the way he angrily stomped his feet on the floor.

"What?" Amy asked, watching the Doctor stomp his way to the door.

"We've landed in an alternate universe!" He said, throwing his hands up.

"How did we do that?" Rory meekly asked.

"Must have been a crack in the time vortex." The Doctor told him.

"Right." Rory said. "Can we get back?"

"The TARDIS still has power, so presumably, yes!" The Doctor slowly opened the TARDIS door, peeking out at the… sky. "So now the artificial gravity works…" he grumbled, taking a prone position and grabbing the bottom lip of the TARDIS. His hands were immediately affected by the planet's gravity, but the rest of his body wasn't. He began to slowly pull himself out, feeling his weight beginning to grow against his hands until he quickly shot his feet out, practically leaping out of the Tardis and onto the soft grass.

"Come along, Ponds!" He gleefully shouted back. He loved saying that.

Amy came first, trying to walk out like normal, but stumbling back in, so she had to do what the Doctor had done to get out. Then came Rory. Neither Ponds were surprised to see the Doctor trying to heave the Tardis right side up. Unfortunately, he couldn't get it more than a foot off the ground, so the two stood beside him, pushing up until the blue box was standing as it should be. The Doctor put his hands on his hips, pushing back his tweed jacket and sighed in contentment. He immediately turned and began to take in his environment. It was a forest. He frowned and pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, whipping it around as it made its routine buzzing noise. It quickly snapped open and he pulled it in front of his face.

"Very similar to Earth." He remarked. "Yet not quite." He waved the sonic around once more, and again pulled it in front of his face. He frowned again, and put it back in his jacket pocket before marching off. Amy and Rory very quickly followed behind him, stepping through the brush and trees. Soon, the sound of gunshots became clear. Gunshots and screaming, coming closer and closer.

"You monster!" A voice angrily screamed. The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows and very quickly pushed through the brush, only to find three girls pointing weapons at him. He jumped back, and smiled weakly.

"Who are you?" One of the girls asked. She was wearing all white, with matching white hair.

"I'm The Doctor, and these are my companions Amy and Rory!" He said, pulling the two out of the bushes. Amy waved, but not happily. One of the girls, a blonde one pulled back, and seemingly wandered off. The others, the white haired one and the black haired one each put their weapons down.

"You got here quick." The black haired one said. The three time travelers raised an eyebrow.

"You called for me?" The Doctor asked.

"Just a minute ago." The white haired said.

"I never got a phone call, but I heard gunshots and screaming. I assume you have wounded, yes?" They nodded. "Let's take a look see!" He said. They quickly pointed to the place the blonde girl had disappeared to, kneeling beside a fallen girl who was wearing a red cape. She seemed to be bleeding profusely, but the blonde girl was trying to stop the bleeding.

"You're not a medical doctor!" Rory whispered as they walked over to the other two girls. All three heard, giving them worried looks.

"Am too!" The Doctor said. "I have my doctorate in a range of topics; film, cheese, medicine! That's only a few things." The girls seemed to be somewhat reassured, but still gave him odd looks.

The Doctor kneeled down beside the injured girl, slowly moving the blonde's hands away from the wound to inspect the damage.

"Ouch." He said, pushing the hands back down, and telling the blonde girl of the damage. "That is most definitely fatal, at least for this decade. Your primitive weaponry and clothing suggests that you haven't made many advancements in medical technology. Weaponry maybe. You've got phones, but a simple impalement is too much for your physicians to handle." The blonde girl seemed scared for the red girl, and didn't seem to grasp whatever it was that was happening. He frowned. "There is only one way for me to save her, and it's going to involve that sword." He pointed to the black haired girl, and she slowly unsheathed her sword, handing it to The Doctor. "Now…" he began. "This is going to look really bad, but I want to remind you that I'm on your side and if you attack me after I begin, she will die." The blonde looked nervous as The Doctor lined the blade up with Red's wrist. He then raised the blade above his head, and cleaved her hand off. Everyone else looked away from the gruesome sight, while he just tossed the sword off to the side, and put both of his hands on Red's wound. Golden regeneration energy flowed between the two, and her wounds began to close. And then her eyes opened. She saw her severed hand not too far away and immediately began to panic. Her wrist was no longer bleeding, but her hand had not grown back either. Her remaining hand had begun to glow, just as The Doctor's had. She noticed this and her breathing picked up. He quickly grabbed either side of her head and pressed his forehead against hers. Next, he put some distance between the two of them and she stood. By now, her friends had returned their gazes to her. As she began to regenerate. The large, golden beams of light tore apart nearby trees and lit bushes on fire. Just as quickly as her regeneration began, she angled both arms to fire the energy into her severed hand, and the surge of energy stopped, allowing her to bounce away from the now glowing hand. She looked relatively unharmed, and even had two hands again.

"I didn't know you could do that." Amy said. The Doctor shook his head.

"I shouldn't be able to." He said. "But there's something about this universe that's different from our own." He was digging through his pockets as he said this, and then he pulled out a matchbox. He quickly pulled out a match and lit it, dropping it on top of the hand. The hand very quickly combusted, and the skin was very quickly turned to ash.

"What did you do?" Red asked. The Doctor looked up as if he was just now realizing she was there.

"The impossible. I made you a Time-Lady." He said.

"A what?" The blonde asked.

"I didn't mean to!" He said, as though he had been accused of a horrible crime. "I meant to make her regenerate just once. She should be able to do it eleven more times. Expanded her life span to at least a thousand years. Sorry." And just like that, he disappeared into the trees.

[Shift]

Team RWBY all stood around in shock after seeing their leader "regenerate". None of them really understood what had just happened, except of course, Ruby, who had accidentally mind melded with The Doctor, learning of Time-Lords, Tardises, and more she had yet to unlock.

The red girl suddenly let out a choking gasp and fell to her hands and knees. Her teammates immediately rushed to her side, but she put a hand up to assure them that she was okay. Her back suddenly arched, and a soft beam of regeneration energy flowed out of her mouth. And then came the waves of information, flooding her mind as if a dam had been broken. Her mind was drowning in this information and it hurt. She let out an agonizing scream as she clutched her forehead. She could feel herself being moved, being dragged, but she could not see where she was being dragged to, as her eyes were filled with visions of Daleks and Cybermen. Her mind was only filled with the most basic knowledge of the things The Doctor knew of. She didn't have access to his memories, just his knowledge. She knew who Amelia Pond was, yet she did not understand why she was so important to The Doctor.

Ruby's mind was filled with knowledge for what felt like days, maybe even weeks. And then Ruby awoke, laying in a small, white room, atop a small white bed. She knew where she was, but she did not know why. She remembered the pain, The Doctor and the regeneration. Yet she did not know why any of this warranted a stay in the infirmary.

She quickly took a look around the room, and found her father sitting at her bedside, fast asleep. Her eyes, and body felt sore as she pulled herself into a sitting position with a groan. Ruby knew this would wake Taiyang, as this was the man who could sleep through the TV being on full volume, but if either one of his daughters so much as whined in their sleep, he'd know about it and rush into their room as if he'd heard a guttural scream.

He quickly sat up in his chair, and helped her get into a comfortable sitting position, with a smile on his face to prove he was happy that she was conscious.

"What happened?" She asked. He voice was hoarse and it hurt to speak.

"Your friends are saying something about a doctor using magic to heal you." He said. He obviously didn't believe it.

"I remember that." She said. "What happened after."

"They said you just started screaming. The doctors are saying that you were conscious, but you were unresponsive. You just kept screaming." He said, looking down at his feet.

"What stopped me?" She asked.

"You lost your voice." He told her.

She nodded. It made sense with how much her throat currently hurt.

"The pain was a side effect of the knowledge I gained from the Time-Lord." She said. She didn't know how she knew this, she just did.

"Time-Lord?" Taiyang asked.

"The masters of time." Ruby said.

"Honey," Taiyang began, resting his hand atop hers. "You're not making any sense. Who was that doctor?"

"He's The Doctor."

"I know, but Doctor Who?"


	2. This Song Is Ending Soon

It had been a few weeks since the incident in the Emerald Forest, and Ruby had already made a full recovery. She was even doing better academically. The young girl had gotten to the point where she was correcting a few of the teachers on physics and math. She could do any sizable equation in her head and contained the knowledge of countless alien worlds. Of course, academics meant very little to her classmates with the Vytal Festival rapidly approaching. Team RWBY had trained long and hard for such, and was ecstatic to find that they were to be the first team to fight in the festival.

[Shift]

That had been months ago, in a time Ruby truly wished she could return to. A much simpler time. Things were different now; Beacon was gone, having taken Ozpin and Pyrrha with it. Yang was missing an arm, Blake had run, and Weiss had been dragged back home. But this did not deter Ruby from her goals. She knew Cinder was heading to Mystral, so she herself was going, accompanied by what remained of Team JNPR.

After all, Ruby thought, A Time-Lady does need her companions. Ruby's newfound title had brought many curiosities to her mind. What was regeneration like when she changed? How long exactly could she live? Were there other Time-Lords in her universe? She had no answer to these questions, nor a way to answer them. So for now she acted as though she only had one heart. Ruby had been shocked to find that she had two, but figured that it was because of her earlier regeneration.

JNPR had no idea of Ruby's ability to regenerate, nor that she needed less sleep than they did. She didn't want them to find out until she actually regenerated. If she regenerated in their lifetimes. Her worried gaze scanned her friends, quickly dissipating as Jaune turned to look at her. Luckily, he hadn't noticed.

They were nearing Mystral now, only a few more hours and they would be there. They were all tired from walking all day, every day for six months straight and were very happy to know they had almost arrived.

[Shift]

As RNJR approached the gates of Mystral, they were not surprised to find that it was very heavily guarded, and that the large gates which had been known to be open for all, were closed.

"State your business!" One of the guards ordered. Ruby stepped forward to speak to the man.

"We heard rumors of Mystral being the next kingdom to be attacked, and we came to try and stop that from happening." She said. The guard gave no response to this, and just went back to watching the treeline. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows and scowled before speaking again. "We're from Vale," she said. "And according to the Vytal Treaty, we should be able to seek refuge behind Mystral walls." The guard quietly cursed under his breath, and signaled for the door to be opened. The giant doors opened slowly, and allowed RNJR to step through, into the city of Mystral.

"What now?" Jaune asked. Ruby thought for a second before turning to him.

"We find Lionheart and warn him that Mystral may be next." She said.

"Right." He said.

"What?" Ruby asked. "You don't like the plan?"

"Well," he began. "It's just, that didn't work too well getting us in, I doubt that will do much to help them prepare."

"Alright, what would you suggest we do?" She asked.

"Try and help anyone who needs it. Maybe help Lee negative energy down to a minimum." He said. She put a hand on her hips.

"There's no way of knowing that will work." She told him.

"We—"

"Ruby, watch out!" Nora suddenly shouted. Ruby turned to see what it was Nora was talking about, only to be tackled from above. She grunted as she hit the ground, her assailant leaping off of her seconds before she did. He had long, dark hair tied into a long braid. He was wearing a long, dark, leather trench coat on top of a white outfit. The outfit did little do cover his bare, scarred chest. He wore a huge, psychotic smile on his face as he stared her down.

"I have a proposition for you, Rosey!" He said, laughing a little at the name. "You can either come with me peacefully, or I kill your friends and take you unconscious." He again laughed, and Ruby began to move away from him. Luckily, Jaune stepped between them.

"She's not going anywhere with you." He said.

"Says who?" The man asked. Nora and Ren joined Jaune on either side, their weapons equipped.

"We do." Nora told him. Ruby gave a worried glance to the Mystral guards, who only watched the whole thing, obviously not even considering interfering. The man suddenly dropped his trench coat and revealed a large scorpion tail attached to his back. He smiled, but so did Nora. Without hesitation, the ginger quickly swiped at his with Magnhild, creating a cloud of dust in doing so.

When the dust cleared, Ruby could see that the man had caught the hammer with his tail. Just as quickly as he had caught it, he wrapped his tail around the handle and tore it from Nora's hands. He then used it to quickly take out JNR. Ruby quickly stood once she realized that she had no defenses, but she couldn't get to her weapon before the man began to quickly attack her over and over, restricting her movement. He was quick in doing so, and Ruby could feel her aura slowly depleting. And with one blow he broke her aura, with another, he launched her into the side of a nearby hut.

"Ruby!" Jaune called out, quickly dragging himself to his feet. Only to fall back down. He was forced to watch as the man slowly closed in on Ruby's position. He could only see her feet, but from this he could tell that she was not moving any part of her body. He wasn't even sure she was breathing. But when movement came, it didn't come from Ruby. Tearing past the gate, almost as if she had seen everything, came Yang. She was riding quickly on Bumbleby, and right towards the man at that. He must not have realized that she was headed towards him, as he kept moving towards Ruby as if nothing was happening. Then Bumbleby contacted his side, launching him backwards through the air.

Yang quickly leapt off her bike, running to the downed girl. She wasn't unconscious, but she was hurt. Bad. Her outfit was torn in several places, and her corset was almost off. The only thing still holding it on was the belt on her chest, and the one on her waist. Blood soaked the formerly white blouse she wore underneath all that, but Yang couldn't tell where the blood originated from. One sleeve was completely torn in half and was pulled from the leather brace on her wrist. Her skirt had holes in it, but only revealed the red fabric underneath the black.

The blonde girl quickly tore off the corset and tossed it to the side. All that was left now was the skirt and the blouse to cover her. The side of the blouse was a dark crimson, staining her sleeve as well. Yang pressed down on the area where the bleeding was and Ruby hissed in pain. This brought Yang's attention to her face, which was cut and bruised to hell. There was a large cut above her right eye, as well as one on her upper lip and the bridge of her nose. The skin on her right cheekbone was also cut up, but it was the worst on her left side. Cuts surrounded her eye, sprinkled from her cheekbone to her temple, to the edge of her forehead. There was a gash on the bottom of her chin as well, but it definitely wasn't as bad as her left side.

"Don't worry about me, Yang." Ruby said, offering a weak smile. Her voice was hoarse and it seemed that she could barely keep her eyes open. "I'll be fine. Go." Her hand slowly rose, and her finger extended, landing on the man, who was slowly getting to his feet. Yang spun around, and extended Ember Celica. The faced the man, and he faced her. She began to sprint towards him, and he her. When they got close enough to one another, Yang leapt in the air, her fist about her head, and he lunged his tail at her.

In a flash, Yang was pulled to the ground and something blocked the man's attack. She looked up, to see what had stopped the tail from stinging her, and saw her uncle, standing over her with his sword between himself and the man. But if Qrow was there, what had pulled her down? She quickly looked around more, and saw her father kneeling beside Ruby. He was shouting to the guards.

"Aren't you gonna do something?!" He asked angrily. They ignored him. Yang ran back to Ruby now that the man was being taken care of, sliding on her knees to the girl's side. "Why would you leave her?" Her father asked.

"I had my back turned to the maniac who did this." She defended. "I couldn't give him the opportunity to attack." Taiyang grunted. He was obviously still mad that she would leave her bleeding sister, but understood why.

Ruby attempted to sit up now, fighting against her family's efforts to keep her laying flat.

"I'm fine." She told them, "My semblance includes accelerated healing, remember?" She pulled on the cut of her shirt, showing them that the wound was not closed, but had already clotted.

"Right." Taiyang chuckled.

Meanwhile, Jaune watched Qrow fighting the man with the scorpion tail, trying his hardest to get to his feet and ultimately failing. The man laughed manically as he distanced himself from Qrow.

"He will knock four times and Ruby Rose will be dead!" He laughed, bounding over the Mystralian walls.

"What?" Everyone collectively asked, giving a worried glance to Ruby, who was now standing and leaning against a nearby wall. The cuts on her face had disappeared and she was working on putting her corset back on. But she had heard what the man had said and she had paused in what she was doing. She sighed.

"If I could just go one more day without hearing that…" she trailed off.

"Wait," Jaune said, using a wall to get himself to his feet. "You knew?"

"How do you think I knew to come here?" She asked him. "I was contacted before what happened at Beacon, and was told to come here. Because my song is ending soon."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Qrow asked her, trying his hardest to be mad. She was making it hard for him with her nonchalant mannerisms.

"I'm not ready for that." She told him, pushing off the wall and slowly walking away from the group. None of them followed. They figured she needed her time alone.

 **Edit: I decided that I wanted to give Ruby a better send off than what I had given her before, so brace yourselves for an actual plot before Ruby dies.**

 **Edit again: I changed the wording of something**


	3. The End Of Time Part 1

Ruby walked through Mistral, seemingly without purpose or direction, but that was not true. She knew where she was going. Who she was supposed to meet. As she walked down a long, dark, isolated alleyway, she heard a voice call out to her.

"You are late." The voice told her. She quickly turned around to face it. Stood behind her was an Ood. She didn't know this particular Ood's name, but they all looked the same to her anyway, so it didn't matter much. They were humanoid creatures with odd shaped oval heads. They typically had two large eyes, slots in their faces for breathing and a bevy of tentacles where their mouths should be. These creatures usually held a sphere in their hands, allowing them to communicate with others. And they usually wore dark colors that covered everything but their heads.

"Yeah." She said. "Sorry. Got caught up in a few things."

"You should not have delayed." The Ood told her.

"Last time we spoke, you told me my song would be ending soon. I'm not ready for that."

"You will come with me." The Ood bluntly told her. She reluctantly followed as he lead her further down the alley. Suddenly, they were standing in the snow as he led her to a small hut. He had quite obviously led her through a portal of some sort, so Ruby wasn't alarmed. Her eyes scanned the Ood city, noting the tall, buildings littering the snowy landscape.

"The mind of the Ood is troubled." He told her.

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"Every night we have bad dreams." He said.

"Why'd you call me, then?" She asked him. "How do you know I can help?"

"We have gained the ability to see through time, Doctor." He said. Ruby cocked her head at that name. "We have seen what you will become. And we know that you may help us." Before Ruby could ask anymore questions, he ushered her into the hut, where many more Ood were sitting around a small fire. The Elder Ood was chanting something, but none of it made any sense to Ruby.

"Join with the Elder in the dreaming." The Oods told her.

"Alright." She muttered, doing as she was told and sitting beside the Elder. They took her hands and visions filled her head. Visions of a deathly pale woman with red veins running along her face. She was laughing. Ruby jerked away. She of course knew who this woman was. "Salem." She said, shock evident in her voice. "I thought she was a myth."

"Yet there is more." The Ood told her. "Join once more." She reluctantly did so, taking the Ood's hand. "You should not have delayed." They told her. "For the lines of convergence are being drawn all across this planet. Even now, the king is in his counting house." They showed her a vision of Jacques Schnee with Cinder. Working with her. Ruby quickly stood when she saw this.

"What does any of this mean?" She asked.

"These visions herald only one thing." The Elder told her. "The end of time itself."

"How do I stop it?" She asked them.

"That is unknown." He told her. "But we hold in our possession a tool to aid you." Another Ood came forward, holding out a small, cylindrical device with a blue dome on the end. "The Doctor has instructed us to give you this." The Elder told her. "It is a Sonic Screwdriver; the tool of a Time Lord."

Ruby reluctantly took the device and stood.

"Thank you." She told them. "But I have to go now."

"Very well." They all bowed and Ruby stepped out of the hut, sprinting back to where she had left the others.

"We have to go to Atlas." She told them.

"What?" Qrow asked. "Why?"

"Cinder's in Atlas." She told them, pacing. "This whole thing is a lot bigger than just Beacon, or Vytal or even Remnant. They're not trying to end civilization; they're trying to bring about the End of Time!"

"Wait, what?" Taiyang asked.

"Did you hit your head?" Yang asked. Ruby stopped pacing and glared at her.

"I think the kid's onto something." Qrow said, shocking the others. "Oz was saying the same thing." They all looked over at Ruby, who grinned proudly as she pointed her new tool at the Mistral gates and activated it. A buzzing sound was heard, and the gates opened.

[Shift]

Weiss quickly walked back to her room, shocked at what she had just seen; Cinder Fall in her home, working with her father! The same woman who destroyed Beacon was now an ally of her father's? She angrily walked into her room and turned around to shut the door.

"Weiss Schnee." A voice said, causing her to jump, and turn around. Leaning against her window was her former leader. "Long time no see." Ruby laughed.

"What are you doing here?!" Weiss nearly shouted.

"I heard that Cinder was here." Ruby bluntly said, the smile fading from her face.

"Who else knows?" Weiss asked, storming over to where Ruby stood.

"Just friends." She told Weiss. Ruby began to slowly walk around the room, her eyes boredly scanning the walls. "Can you tell me what they're doing down there?" She asked.

"They're working on some sort of gateway." Weiss said. "I don't know what it is."

"Neither do I." Ruby turned to Weiss, smiling. "It's so exciting, isn't it? To not know?" Weiss simply shook her head. She couldn't help but smile.

"You just keep getting weirder and weirder." She said. Her smile faded as she looked at Ruby's shirt. It was covered in blood and a hole in her shirt revealed a rather large wound. It didn't seem to be bleeding anymore, but it still looked rather nasty. "What happened?" Weiss asked.

"Got into a little fight." Ruby told her. "But that's not important. Cinder is planning something huge. She's trying to bring about the end of everything. Not just Remnant, but time as a whole."

"That's not possible." Weiss said.

"It's very possible." Ruby told her. "If one were to violate the laws of time in such a way that you would stop yourself from doing it and thus stopping yourself from stopping yourself, you could destroy time in its entirety."

"What do we do to stop it?" Weiss asked.

"I'd have to get a look at that gateway to even begin to comprehend where to start." Ruby told her. The redhead began to move to Weiss' door, but before she could open it, Cinder and Jacques stepped through. Cinder smiled evilly and grabbed Ruby, using her maiden abilities to instantaneously knock the girl unconscious.


	4. The End Of Time Part 2

When Ruby came to, she found that her arms, legs and her head were bound, tying her to what seemed to be a dolley. Ruby strained against the straps, but it didn't help.

"It seems as though the Time Lord wannabe is awake." Cinder taunted from behind Ruby. She slowly walked around in front of Ruby. Only now did the girl see what her eyes had done to Cinder's face. It was horribly burnt and scarred and it seemed as though she was missing an eye. "The end of time?" Cinder asked her. "What makes you think I want to end time? I don't want to end time. I want to rule it."

"And that gateway," Ruby began. "How does it help you with that?" Cinder smiled evilly, and grabbed another strap from behind Ruby, wrapping it around the girl's mouth and disabling her ability to speak.

"I need an army," she told Ruby. "But I cannot rule with a frail form such as this one." Cinder's hands began to glow in a familiar fashion. Ruby knew what was happening. What Cinder was. Ruby's eyes widened as the glow began to get brighter and brighter, until it exploded out of Cinder's neck and wrists. When it finally stopped, Cinder was no more. Now, stood in her place was a man with slicked, black hair. He had a chiseled jaw line, and a neck that was just as thick as his head. Contrary to this, he was not particularly buff. His eyebrows came down, covering nearly half of his eyes and making him look rather threatening. His nose was a very average and forgettable feature about his face. Ruby thought Cinder's new form was that of your average Bond villain, yet also like Sherlock Holmes, and she found this quite humorous. Especially the fact that the man was still wearing Cinder's dress. But Ruby did not laugh. She didn't dare. It's not like Cinder needed her anymore, and anything she did to offend him would just result in her own death.

"Now," Cinder spoke with an oddly posh and lilting accent. His voice was deep and now carried some authority to it. Not that Cinder wasn't threatening before, but this voice seemed to lack the eloquence that Cinder had before. "Oh." He stopped himself. "I'm a man now, it would seem. British, too." Ruby rolled her eyes, then raised her eyebrows, as if to say, "Get on with it!"

"Right," Cinder said, as if he understood. "Where was I?" Ruby looked over at the gate, and Cinder followed her gaze. "Right! Yes! I forgot!" This new version of Cinder seemed far friendlier than the previous. "Now! On with the gate!" He commanded the others around him. Only now did Ruby notice the workers in labcoats sitting at desks around her. They began tapping away at their computers, and the gate roared to life. The loud whirring filled the room as Cinder stepped inside. Ruby curiously watched this, expecting a doorway of some sort. A weapon. A clone. Ruby didn't know what she was expecting. The gate seemed to scan Cinder, then a shockwave flew out, sending papers flying and reaching past the building, far off into the horizon. The lab technicians began to rapidly shake their heads, a blur taking their heads' places.

Ruby's eyes widened in realization, and then darted over to where Cinder stood. He was laughing.

"You know what they say; 'If you want something done right, you oughta do it yourself'!" He shouted. The head shaking stopped, and Cinder's head took the place of them all. Ruby struggled to break free of her restraints, but to no avail. Cinder strode over to her, tearing open the mouth strap.

"You're a monster!" Ruby told her. Cinder shook his head.

"No." He said. "I'm a master." He laughed as he stepped away.

"You can't win." Ruby told him.

"Why not?" He asked. "You're tied up and anyone who has any chance of helping you is now me!" Ruby smirked at this comment. This only angered Cinder. "Kill her." He ordered his guards. One of the guards stepped forward and Ruby laughed.

"You're stone cold brilliant," Ruby began. "Yet you're still so stupid. You can't see the obvious!"

"And what is that?" Cinder asked.

"That guard is one inch too short." Ruby told her. The guard suddenly turned and knocked Cinder out, quickly taking their helmet off.

"What the hell is going on?" The person behind the helmet asked, ruffling her black hair to disrupt the helmet hair.

"Never mind that now," Ruby told her. "Unstrap me!"

"No time!" Blake said, grabbing the back of the dolley.

"No!" Ruby shouted. "No! Untie me!" Blake hid a small smile as Ruby yelled at her. "Blake, there are stairs in this building! A lot of them!" Blake wheeled Ruby down the stairs, despite the girl's protests.

"After them!" A voice called. Blake's only sped up at hearing this, no longer rolling Ruby down the stairs with care. She rolled Ruby out the door and laid her down inside of a bullhead. She then climbed in herself and shut both doors behind her, hopping into the pilot's seat.

"I didn't know you were a pilot." Ruby said.

"I'm not." Blake told her.

"Wait, what?!"

[Shift]

When Ruby and Blake arrived at their destination—wherever it was, Ruby had no clue—other people slid the doors open and lifted Ruby out of the bullhead. Ruby noted that these men were Atlesian soldiers and they were in what seemed to be a hangar bay. General Ironwood was standing not too far off with the rest of Ruby's friends and family. It didn't take long for Ruby to figure out why they were all unaffected by Cinder's transformation gate. It most likely used radiation to spread the template across the planet, and most Atlesian command vessels were made to deflect any form of radiation.

"Untie me." Ruby told the soldiers. Neither even bothered with the straps, grabbing small pocket knives and cutting her free. Ruby immediately sprinted over to a panel on the wall and pulled out her sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the panel. The blast doors for the hangar closed, and all the lights shut off. She turned to Ironwood, who stood not too far away, both shocked and angry.

"Cinder has control of every kingdom. Imagine what he could do if he found out where we were." She said. Ironwood simply nodded.

"Did you find out what she's planning?" Yang asked. Ruby nodded.

"She's a he now, so there's that." Ruby said. "But that's not important right now. He's planning to bring Gallifrey here. To Remnant! So that he can destroy it and become the sole ruler of time!"

"Let's pretend that you're the only one who understands what Gallifrey is or why she—he needs it to become the ruler of time." Yang told her.

"Gallifrey is a planet." Ruby said. "Home of the Time Lords. The rulers of time. If he were to kill all of them, then he would inherit the title; ruler of time!"

"Why not just go to them?" Jaune asked her.

"Because Remnant doesn't have the resources necessary to allow long distance space travel. Even if we did, it would take a very long time to get all the way out there." She said. "And if he's doing what I think he's going to do, there won't be anything left of Remnant when she's done."

"How do we stop her?" Taiyang finally asked. Ruby gave him a blank stare.

"I don't know." She said. "Anything I do will result in someone dying. And there are things I can't account for that will probably result in my death."

"That healing thing you did back in the Emerald Forest," Yang said. "Didn't the Doctor say you could do that eleven more times?"

"Yes." Ruby said. "But I can still die. If I'm killed before I can regenerate, then I'm dead. And even then, this time it would be different."

"What do you mean?" Yang asked.

"Last time I regenerated, I did it enough to let myself heal, then I siphoned the excess energy into my hand. But this time I won't be able to do that. My hand was severed before I was given the ability to regenerate, so I didn't begin to regenerate immediately. If we tried to do that again, then it would start before we could be properly prepared."

"And what happens if we don't do that?" Taiyang curiously asked.

"Everything I am dies, and some new person comes walking away." She told them.

"I don't understand." Taiyang said. "If you 'regenerate', then someone else takes your place?"

"Well, it's me. But they'll look different, sound different and act different." She told him. "And it looks like I don't have much of a choice in this." She sighed and turned back to Ironwood. "Get your men on repairing the electrical systems. If you don't hear from me or my colleagues by the time you see a large planet on the horizon, I need you to bomb the Schnee Mansion." Ironwood nodded and Ruby pointed her screwdriver at the blast doors. They very slowly opened and Ruby climbed back into the bullhead, her friends right behind her. They didn't know what her plan was, but neither did she. Taiyang slowly approached her.

"Ruby. Qrow and I are gonna stay here and help however we can." He reached into the larger pocket of his cargo shorts and pulled out a pistol. "If it comes down to it, I want you to kill Cinder before he can kill you, okay?" Ruby just looked at him, showing no signs of wanting to take the gun. "Take it." He told her. "I can't lose you too. Please. Take it." Ruby grasped the handle of the gun firmly, nodding as she stuffed it into her belt.

[Shift]

"What's the plan?" Blake asked, once again piloting the bullhead.

"Fly low over the mansion." Ruby told her. Blake did as told, and just as they began to pass over it, Ruby jumped, shocking her teammates and friends. They watched her crash through the skylight of the mansion, hitting the ground hard.

Ruby looked around. She could see Cinder on one side of her, and Salem on the other. She quickly rose and pulled out the gun, pointing it at Salem, then she spun around and pointed the gun at Cinder.

"You never would," Cinder said. "You coward." Ruby just stared at the man before spinning around and pointing the gun at Salem again.

"Kill the Time Lord." The witch said. "He is the enemy. Not I." Ruby spun back around to face Cinder, pointing the gun at him once more. Then Ruby saw it; behind Cinder was the machine he was going to use to bring Gallifrey to Remnant.

"Move." She simply said. Cinder leapt out of the way and Ruby pulled the trigger, causing the machine to explode, sparks flying up and burning Ruby's face.

The girl turned back around to Salem, feeling her eyes beginning to activate. White streams of light reached out and attacked the witch, tearing her to pieces as Ruby simply looked at her. Ruby could feel her eyes draining her body, making her legs feel weak. But she did not fall. She began to unload the gun into Salem, hearing the vile woman scream in agony. And then Ruby fell. Everything went black and she felt her body hit the hard, cold, glass covered floor.

[Shift]

Yang, Blake and the remainder of Team JNPR ran from room to room in the Schnee mansion, hoping to find the room that housed Ruby, and possibly even Weiss.

"Over here!" Jaune shouted. Their attention was brought to a large, white, wooden door. Jaune pushed on it, but it didn't budge. "I heard something in here!" He told them. He threw his weight against the door as the others came to aid him. The door didn't budge, so he did it once again. Still, nothing. He tried again, and the door still didn't move, but then he tried on final time and the door flew open, revealing the decimated room. Furniture was thrown about, and shards of glass covered the floor. And in the center of the room was Ruby. She seemed to be conscious, laying on her hands and knees with a shocked expression on her bloody face.

"Did you really have to knock?" She jokingly asked. Only then did they realize what Jaune had done; he had hit the door four times. He had knocked four times. Ruby dragged herself to her feet, nervously pacing, as Blake ran over to Weiss' prone form. "They were turned back when Salem was killed." Ruby told them. "I don't know why, but she'll be fine nonetheless." She leaned against a nearby desk, trying hard to hide the sobs that wracked her body. "I could do so much more…" She quietly said. She pushed off the desk and pounded her fists on her chest. "So much more!" She screamed. She resumed her position, knelt over the desk, as the others carefully watched her. "But this is what I get?" She asked. "This is my reward?" A look of anger flashed on her face and she screamed, "It's not fair!" before swiping everything off of the desk.

None of them could blame her for reacting in such a way. She felt as though she was being replaced. And forgotten. Ruby turned back to her friends, noting that her screaming had woken Weiss.

"Promise me you won't forget." Ruby said, breaking a small smile as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "No matter how much cooler they are; please don't forget me." Her face had every so suddenly healed without any of them noticing.

"Never." Jaune told her. Ruby's smile widened, but she wasn't happy. She tugged the rose brooch from her cloak, letting it clatter to the floor as she dropped her cloak as well. Her smile fully disappeared and she began to break down, a faint, golden glow appearing on her skin. Ruby began to hyperventilate as the glow got brighter.

"I don't wanna go." She sobbed. Her hands and neck suddenly exploded into a display of golden fire, licking the support columns and causing them to crumple and fall over. When the fire was gone, so was Ruby.


	5. Deep Breath

The woman that had taken Ruby's place only seemed to look a little older than her previous incarnation. She had long, pure blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders. Her head had width, but lacked height, causing her to look just a little shorter than she actually was. Her height hadn't actually changed, however, remaining the same stature she had previously. Her nose was small, lacking both height and width, and the rest of her face was proportional to that template.

The new girl suddenly hugged each of her legs, happily shouting, "Legs! I've still got legs!" Her voice seemed to hold the same accent that Cinder's had, but only she knew that. "Good." She said, preceding to scan herself over some more. "Arms!" She noticed. "Hands! Oh, fingers!" She began to rapidly count her fingers. "Lots of fingers!" She laughed. Next, she felt her ears, reaching into her hair. "Ears, and lots of hair." She grabbed a strand of her hair, pulling it in front of her face. "Blonde hair." She then covered her eyes with her hands, quickly pulling her hands away. "Eyes, yes; two." She noted. Finally, she grabbed her nose, reeling back. "Nose?" She asked herself. "Yes, I suppose."

"You actually look like your father's daughter now!" Nora pointed out. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked. Her eyebrows suddenly popped up. "Oh! It's because I'm blonde now, isn't it?" She chuckled, leaning against one of the nearby desks. "I suppose we should probably go back to Ironwood." She boredly said. She pushed off the desk and sped past her friends, who just stared in the spot she had recently occupied.

"What the hell just happened?" Weiss asked, pulling herself to her feet. "Where did Ruby go? And who is that?" Yang slowly shook out of her trance.

"That was Ruby. She regenerated." She told Weiss, who just quietly shook her head.

[Shift]

Taiyang watched the bullhead come into the hangar bay nervously. He didn't know if Ruby had regenerated, stayed the same, or died. All the others stepped off the bullhead first, Yang coming off almost last. In her hands, she held Ruby's cloak and brooch. Taiyang's heart stood still, and he watched for anyone else to step off. Then, came a blonde woman wearing Ruby's clothes. He was conflicted, not sure whether he should be happy that Ruby hadn't died, or upset that she had. Yang reached him before the new Ruby did, and he scowled at her.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I don't know." Yang said, looking rather apologetic. "One second she was fine, and the next she was going on about how she could do so much more and how it wasn't fair. And then she changed."

"My eyes." Ruby suddenly said, making both of them jump. "I broke my aura with that fall, and with no aura to pull the energy from, it sucked the life out of me." She told them. "The regeneration made it seem like I was fine, but I obviously wasn't."

"You look like shit." Taiyang pointed out, giving a small smile. Ruby smiled back.

"Thanks, Dad." She joked. She then looked down at her attire. It was riddled with shards of glass and small rips and tears, as well as the blood from earlier. "But, yeah. I probably need to change clothes." She said. "I'll find something later." She waved her hand dismissively. "First, I need to figure out why we're spinning like this!" Both Yang and Taiyang raised an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" Yang asked her.

"Oh." Ruby simply said, collapsing. Taiyang lunged forward and caught her, gently setting her down on the ground.

[Shift]

"Is she sick?" Yang nervously asked, pacing back and forth in front of Ruby's white cot in the ship's infirmary. "Did something go wrong?"

"There's only one person who can answer that," Qrow said. "And she's currently unconscious." Ruby suddenly stiffened in her cot and her mouth opened, allowing a small bit of golden energy to float from her throat. Her body relaxed after that, and she continued to quietly sleep.

"She will be fine." A voice said. It was deep and commanding, like that of a general. They all turned to the source of the voice to see that the one it belong to looked like a general as well. But not a General of Remnant. He had short, grey hair, and thick, black eyebrows. His clean shaven face seemed to be one that normally held an expression of anger, but didn't at this point in time. He also seemed to be wearing some sort of robes. They were made of red velvet, stretching all the way down to his ankles, and was trimmed with a golden, floral design. On his chest was a circular medallion with some sort of foreign engraving on it. "It is only a part of regeneration." He told them. "As painful as it may be, it is only natural."

"Who are you?" Taiyang asked the man. His face hardened.

"I am the one known as Rassilon." He told the blonde man. "And I am the Lord High President of the Time Lords."

"Why are you here?" Qrow reluctantly asked.

"That girl," he pointed to Ruby. "She has yet to become a Time Lord, yet she regenerates. I have come to offer her the opportunity to earn such a title."

"I don't know if ya noticed," Qrow said. "But she's kinda out cold." Rassilon simply raised his hand, allow them to see the steel gauntlet he wore. The gauntlet glowed with a blue light, and they heard Ruby gasp. The blonde girl quickly sat up, rapidly looking around. Her eyes stopped on Rassilon, and she frowned.

"What've you come to Remnant for?" She asked in a very English way. Before the man could answer, she sprung from the bed, revealing the black pyjamas she was wearing. "Better question," She said. "Why am I English?" He opened his mouth to speak, but Ruby spoke before he could. "Don't answer that." She told him.

"How do you know who I am?" Rassilon asked. Ruby's head snapped to him.

"How could I not?" She was avoiding the question. She didn't want to tell him how she had truly acquired the knowledge of an old Time Lord.

"You are a native of Remnant." Rassilon countered. "A primitive civilization that has yet to leave their atmosphere—" he paused. "You've encountered a Time Lord previously, haven't you?" Ruby slowly nodded.

"The one who calls himself The Doctor." She reluctantly said. Rassilon adopted a confused expression.

"No such man exists." He told her.

"He came from an alternate dimension." Ruby told him. "And I was dying. He healed me, but in the process, he made me into one of you."

"That is not possible." Rassilon said, shocked.

"I know." Ruby said, grinning. "It's exciting, isn't it?" There was a long gap of silence, and then Rassilon spoke again.

"How would you like for a chance to earn your title?" He asked. Ruby simply grinned again.


	6. The End Of The World

It had been months since Ruby had gone off to properly earn her title as Time Lord—or Time Lady as Weiss so frequently reminded her teammates—and there was still no sign of the girl returning. In Ruby's absence, Beacon had been cleared of Grimm and was currently being rebuilt. Most of the school seemed to be still intact, but Ozpin's old clock tower had been mostly destroyed and the debris had scattered, inflicting some damage on the few of the other buildings. Nothing too serious, however.

Jacques Schnee had been arrested, but the charges were not publicly released. Weiss, now being eighteen, took over her father's company and began to actually do some good with her family name. The Faunas workers were being treated just the same as the human workers and nothing illegal was being done, so the White Fang withdrew their attacks on the company, but that wasn't their only reason for doing so.

Blake and her family had managed to take back the White Fang from Adam—with Yang's help, of course—and Blake's father was back in charge. Not that the White Fang was needed much longer. With the Schnee Dust Company treating them as equals, many other businesses and people followed suit.

The remainders of Team RWBY still tried to meet regularly, even if they were all very busy people, they managed to make time at least once a month. They usually met up at the same restaurant in Atlas every month, sitting at the same table every time. How Ruby found out about this, they'd never know.

When they met up for the tenth time after Ruby went off, they saw someone sitting at their table, resting their black boots on top of the table. Their face was covered by the restaurant's large menu.

"Excuse me, ma'am." A waitress said to the woman. "But this table is reserved." The woman in question sat up, setting the menu down in front of her. She was wearing a crimson t-shirt with a long, leather jacket that stretched down to her knees. She also had on a pair of dark blue jeans that neatly covered her ankles. WBY didn't immediately recognize her, but when she spoke, it clicked.

"I'm a friend." She motioned to the three, and the waitress looked over at them.

"Do you know this woman?" She asked. Yang nodded.

"Yeah." She said. The waitress wandered off and the three sat down beside their leader. "What are you doing here?" Yang asked. "I thought your 'title earning thing' would last a bit longer than a year." Ruby looked over at the blonde.

"Has it really been a year?" She asked. Yang nodded.

"Right of passage is the term you were looking for, Yang." Weiss said, ignored by the others.

"Meant to come back sooner." Ruby told her. "Well, I'm still learning."

"Did you fly back here?" Yang quietly asked. "In a spaceship?" Ruby chuckled.

"I guess you could say that." She said.

"Where did you park?" Blake jokingly asked.

"Out front." Ruby simply said. All three strained their heads to see out the front window. Ruby chuckled again. "It's camouflaged." She told them. She suddenly stood. "Would you like to see it?" All but Weiss rose and followed Ruby out of the restaurant. Realizing that she had been left behind, Weiss quickly followed them into the alley behind the restaurant. When she caught up, she found Ruby unlocking a large, blue, wooden booth. It had several white windows on every side of it, and a sign that read,"POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX"

"It's a lot smaller than I imagined it would be." Yang said.

"Just wait." Ruby said, pushing the door open. She stepped in and they all filed in behind her. They were shocked when they saw what was inside. There was a large, circular room housed in the small, blue box. It was mostly filled with a silver color, small archways encompassing the room and holding up the catwalks that lined the walls. Despite the darkness the room held, there were circular lights on the walls behind the catwalk. There were also lights occupying the space between the walls and the ceiling. There was a catwalk directly in front of them, leading to a circular platform with a hexagonal control panel in the center. It had all sorts of switches and levers on it, including two monitors that were mounted to it with two short arms. Sprawling up from the control panel was a glowing, cylindrical tube that fed up into a disk in the ceiling. The disk itself had engravings similar to what they had seen Rassilon wearing. Instead of railings in the center platform, there were more control panels.

There were two sets of stairs that led up to the catwalks, one beside the entrance, and one opposite. Just beside the one opposite to the entrance was another stairway, but it led downwards. Ruby shut the door behind them as them marveled at the large room.

"It's bigger on the inside." Yang said, cracking a smile. "This is so cool."

"It's also a time machine." Ruby told them. They all returned their focus to her.

"You're kidding!" Blake excitedly said. Ruby bounded over to the control panel with a smirk painted on her face.

"So!" She exclaimed. "All of time and space. Everything that's ever happened or ever will—Where do you want to start?" She began to rapidly hit buttons and switches, and the box began to loudly moan and groan. "What do you say we check out Apalapucia?" She asked. "It was voted number two in Top Ten Destinations for the Discerning Intergalactic Traveller, and boasts soaring spires, silver colonnades and the mirrored Glasmir mountains!" She happily declared.

"That sounds rather nice." Weiss said, surprising the others. Ruby looked to Yang and Blake for confirmation, and they simply nodded.

"Apalapucia it is, then!" She said, continuing to push buttons and flip switches. The groaning stop and there was a loud thud. Ruby raced to the door and quickly opened it, frowning. "This looks a bit more like New Remnant." She said.

"New Remnant?" Blake asked.

"It's exactly as it sounds." Ruby told her. "Not too creative, they are."

"They?" Weiss asked.

"Y'know!" Ruby said, making wild hand gestures at Yang and Weiss. "They! You! Humanity!"

"What happened to Remnant?" Yang asked. Ruby sighed, closing the doors.

"It'd be better if I just showed you." She said. "It's actually quite beautiful, even if it is the end of the world." She ran back over to the console and the groaning began again. It wasn't too long before it stopped, again, with a thud.

[Shift]

The space station that Ruby had taken them to orbited the planet they had all spent so much time on, never thinking of leaving. Never wanting to. Never being able to.

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. Maybe even the Grimm." Ruby said, as they all looked out to their planet. "But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day that the sun expands. The end of the world." The aforementioned star suddenly flared and turned red, as if on cue.

A voice suddenly echoed throughout the space station. A robotic, female voice. It said, "Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Remnant's Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty nine. Followed by drinks at the Holiday Inn."

"It says guests," Weiss began as the four began to walk down a long, metallic corridor. "Does that mean people?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'people'." Ruby told her.

"I mean people." Weiss said. "What do you mean?"

"Aliens."

"What are they doing on this spaceship?" Yang asked. "What's it all for?" Ruby briefly glanced over at her.

"It's not really a spaceship, more like an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn." She said. Ruby suddenly stopped and kneeled down beside a wall panel. She neatly tore it open and whipped out her sonic screwdriver, waving it in the wires. A door suddenly opened and they walked into the room behind it. It was a large room with a few display cases and a view of the planet.

"Why?" Weiss indignantly asked.

"Fun." Ruby said with a smile. "Mind you, when I say the great and the good, I mean the rich and powerful."

"I read this in a book once." Blake said, her voice holding no emotion. "Shouldn't this take thousands of years?"

"Millions." Ruby corrected. "But the planet's now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. But now that the money's run out, so has the planet's time."

"How long does it have?" Yang asked. Ruby checked her watch.

"About half an hour." She said.

"You saved Remnant before," Yang began. "So, is that what we're doing here? Are we gonna save it?" Ruby shook her head.

"I'm not saving it." She said. "Time's up."

"What about all the people?" Blake asked, seemingly worried.

"It's empty. They're all gone." Ruby said. "No one left. The human and Faunas races have spread out amongst the stars." There was silence for a long time before Ruby spoke again. "I'm not going to do anything because there is nothing for me to do. It's too late!" She said. "Besides, even if I could, this is a fixed point in time. It can't be stopped." The other three began to disperse, and Blake quietly called back.

"We understand." She said. "It's just kinda hard to watch."


End file.
